InVision Technologies Receives $4 Million in Additional Funding for its Landmine Detection Program; U.S. Army and Office of Naval Research/USMC to Pursue Aggressive Development.

Business Editors

NEWARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 1, 2000

InVision Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: INVN) today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, Quantum Magnetics (Quantum) has received an additional $4 million in funding to begin to transition its Defense Advanced Research Program Agency (DARPA) mine detection program to the U.S. Army and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the United States Marine Corps (USMC). This additional funding comes on the heels of successful field trials at the Army Combat Engineering School test facility at Fort Leonard Wood, MO. During these tests, the Quantum prototype land mine detection system detected 100% of all antipersonnel and antitank landmines with no false alarms after a rescan of initial alarms.

The new funding is comprised of $700,000 from ONR with an additional $750,000 from DARPA. These funds are for the start of work to miniaturize the current prototype QR system into a man-portable, backpack system for the USMC. Quantum is currently working with the Office of Naval Research to finalize a two-year, $8 million follow-on program to address science and technology issues, with a transition to a formal USMC acquisition program scheduled for FY02.

"The Office of Naval Research has embarked on an ambitious program to take quadrupole resonance technology from the laboratory to the warfighter," Rear Admiral Paul G. Gaffney, Chief of Naval Research and Deputy Commandant for Science and Technology, said in a related DARPA news release. "We will attempt to package this technology in a man-portable system that meets USMC tactical requirements. Working closely with USMC Systems Command, our goal is to demonstrate scalability and potential military utility."

Simultaneously, the U.S. Army has provided $1.6 million and DARPA has provided an additional $1 million to begin a vehicle-based land mine detection system. This initial funding is part of a potential 3-year, $15 million program to further develop and field QR equipment for land mine detection on roads.

"We are extremely pleased with the prospect of a successful transition of our landmine detection technology to where it can do the most good, in the hands of de-miners around the world," said Sergio Magistri, President and Chief Executive Officer of InVision.

Quantum began development of its QR-based land mine detection technology in April of 1997. With the additional $4 million funding just received, funding on this program has now exceeded $13 million. The results that have been achieved are significant. Previously announced field trials in December of 1999 marked the first ever demonstration of the detection of TNT in the field using QR, but more importantly, this is the first time in history that plastic, low metal content landmines have been detected with this level of performance by any system in actual field conditions.

The Quantum system is based on Quadrupole Resonance (QR), which applies a radio-frequency magnetic-field pulse at a frequency specific to individual explosive compounds. Unlike other technologies, which do not detect the mine's explosive charge, QR can serve as both a primary and confirmation sensor, enabling the system to resolve its own false alarms. The current QR prototype system detects metal, RDX, TNT and Composition B, and is thus able to detect the vast majority of all landmines deployed throughout the world. Future systems are expected to be able to detect Tetryl as well. QR has the ability to operate in almost all soil conditions including saturated soils, as well as through water.

Quantum Magnetics, acquired by InVision Technologies in September 1997, develops and commercializes patented and proprietary technologies, including key QR patents licensed from the Naval Research Laboratory, that are based on a state-of-the-art, low-cost version of magnetic resonance adapted for explosive detection. InVision develops, manufactures, markets and supports systems based on advanced Computed Tomography (CT) technology for explosive detection systems for civil aviation security, for log scanning for the wood products industry and for drug detection applications. Today, more than 180 FAA-certified CTX 5000 series systems are deployed worldwide to provide the traveling public with the best security against terrorism available. InVision is based in Newark, California. Additional information about the company can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.invision-tech.com.

Except for the historical information contained herein, this news release may contain forward looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including risks inherent to the development of new products and new applications; risks inherent in obtaining government funding and government research and development contracts; risks inherent with the timely development of products and the acceptance and pricing of new products; and other risks detailed from time to time in the company's SEC reports, including the most recent reports on Forms 10-Q and 10-K.